wellman



F. E. WELLMAN.

PIPE STILL FOR HIGH PRESSURE.

APPLICATION FlLED mi s, 1916.

Patented Dec. 2, 1919.

Z SHEETS-SHEET I.

g w k k 1 I F. E. WELLMAN.

PIPE STILL FOR HIGH PRESSURE.

APPLICATION FILED MAYB, 1916.

1,323,383. Patented De 1919.

2 SHEETS- 2.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FIBAN K E. WELLMAN, OF KANSAS'CIT'Y, KANSAS, ASSIGNOB TO THE KANSAS CITY GASOLINE COMPANY, OF KANSAS CITY, KANSAS, A CORPORATION OF KANSAS.

It has for its object the production of a stillor retort which will not leak under any conditions of heat and pressure and variations thereof which are encountered in practice.

In my prior applications, Serial Nos. 32,704: and 69,500, I have disclosed a system for :the treatment of liquid hydrocarbons which includes with other elements, a superheater or high pressurestill or retort con:

sisting of straight lengths or sections of pipe laid parallel or at a small angle witheach other, and connected at their extremities by return bends. When the diameter of such pipes is increased beyond a certain point, it is .difiicult to form joints by the ordinary methods heretofore known by others, without having leakage, especially after the joints have been exposed to temperatures of 750 F. and upward, and pressures of 600 pounds to the square inch and upward, which I employ in practice. In .the course of mywork, I have found that such leakage is probably due to unequal expansion and contraction of the connected parts. This might be overcome'theoretically by forming the entire structure of one continuous length of pipe from'end to end, but for reasons encountered in practice, and which are sufliciently obvious withbut being described n 7 detail, the bending of a great length of pipe,

especially of a large diameter, so as to reduce it to a compact mass of straight paral- 'lel' sections with relatively short Treturn bonds, is diflicult if not impracticable. On

the other hand, such a compact arrangement is necessary in order tomake use of the ec onomical type of heating apparatus or furnace which I prefer to employ andwhich-is set forth in my prior applications above referred to. Furthermore, it is very im-por tant to provide means for readily clearing out deposits of carbon and other material Specification of Letters I atent. I

=sistance to tensile strains is PIPE-STILL FOR HIGH PRESSURE.

Patented Dec. 2, 1919.

. Application filed May s, 1916. Serial No. 96,260.

which accumulate in a retort of this kind in operation. The process of cracking and taking ofi the lighter series of hydrocarbons may be stated inversely as one involving the removal of the, heavier series and carbon from the liquid or vapor under treatment, and universal experience has shown that in such processes it is not always possible to completely drain ofi or carry away the heavier, products, the carbon especially having a tendency to accumulate in the heated portions of the system. i

I solve the problems thus presented by building up my retort of sectional units, which will be shown and described herein as straight parallel sections arranged in substantially the 'same figure as those in my prior applications, but united throughout so as to form a continuous, homogeneous and uniformly resistant structure throughout. The manner of doing this, and the means of conjoining the severalsections so as to produce the desired result, constitute the present invention. After. numerous experiments, I have found that I can produce the desired conditions of uniformity and homogeneity, together with strengthenough to resist high pressures, by welding all the joi which I do, either by makin a direct welded butt joint, between the on of each straight pipe or section, and the registering end of a return bend on the next pipe, or by welding flanges on to the ends of the straight pipes and return bends, or by welding a bend on each section to the side of the next adjacent 'section, and welding a flange on the end of with the adjacent pipes, and (2) the metal can be readiiythickened around the junction during welding, so that the actual regreater than in other parts'of the pipe. 5 r -My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which' Figure 1 is a diagram showing'a primary still or vaporizer, a compressor, and a pipe still or retort with my invention applied to afew turns, typifying the many turns in a commercial still.

Fig. 2 is a detail view showing modifications, with flanges welded onthe-abutting ends of the straight pipe sections and the return bends.

Figs. 3 and 4 are respectively a plan view and an end view of superheater coils, the furnace in Fig. 3 being in section on the line 38 of Fig. 4.

Referring to Fig. 1, as the vaporizer and the compressor with the connecting pipe lines, form no part of the present invention, they need not be described, beyond stating that they are indicated by the numerals 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

The superheater or retort to which m invention is applied (although not con ned thereto), is indicated at 1 and may be substantially of the same type illustrated and described in my prior applications herein referred to. The 0011 or pipe-still is vinclosed within a furnace with sultable means for producing heat therein, and the coil is composed of a plurality of straight sections 5, connected by return bends 6. The welded joints are shown at 7 and are preferably edges flow and not only make a perfect wgld,

made by the oxyacetylene process. The joints shownin this Fig. 1, are simply buttwelds which may also be produced electrically if desired. Both these processes of welding are well known and in commercial use for other purposes, but so far as I know, neither one of them has ever been employed for this purpose and with the results which I obtain.- The.pipe ends are prepared by mitering to gage, and are then placed together so as ,to register, put under pressure, to hold them together, and the heat a plied, with or without additional metal applied to the joint. The result is that the mitered but thicken at: thejomts so as to increase the resistance to tensile strain thereat. For sin-electrical weld, the edges are preferably prepared in a similar manner, and pressed firmly together while current at very low voltage is passedin large volume, so as to raise the temperature of the edgesto the welding oint. a

Instea of making a butt joint, it-is-also racticable to make a telescope or lag-joint, bu I do not consider this so desire tube. In making a welded coil of thi'sft e,

the joints are ofcourse permanent, 'w ich:

to carefully observe certain de struction and arrangement which I haven.

1 1 5 their effect. Referring to Fig. 2 it'will be iobserved thatthe. flanges 12 and 13 are secause it is apt to produce an offset inside th'e" it is desirable to havethe interior of the pipe as smooth as possible.

In Fig. 2 I have shown a welded .flanged joint, with one side solid and the other side 1n section. In. this case the pipe 5 is pref-. erably threaded into the ring or flange and. welded at the points 11 and 14, inside and outside of the flange.

Other forms ofv welds, and methods of welding, may be employed, either in securing the flanges of F ig. 2, or for producing the butt-welds of Fig. 1. "It will be under.- stood that the illustration and description I furnish herein are intended for purposes of definition only, and not of limitation.v I believe that it is novel and original with me to utilize welded joints in a high pressure pipe-still for the purpose stated, and

I shall claim the same accordingly.

As an illustration of the advantages gained by this method of making joints, it should be observed. that these coils are exposed to a temperature suflicient in course of time tochange the granular structure of the steel or equivalent metal emp oyed, and in order to restore the granular structure, it is necessary. to heat the pipe above a certain criticalpoint, say 1300 F and then cool it vegy slowly. In the pr sent case, I have a foun hat my welded joints behave in th e same manner as the straight pipe, this being due to the practically complete homogeneity the coil from the furnace.

In order to render this invention fully available, especially with bolted flanges bends for cleaning purposes, it i ils '0 confound in practice to be very important in.

cured by edge or calk welding, that is to say the spot, without the necessity of removing by being. first screwed upon the end of the p pe, and thenwelded around the edges-'10, 11, 14 and 15. This particular weld is pro duced-by softening the metal in the oxy- I acetylene blast and at the same time feeding other melted metal =into'- the joint. The re: sult is an absolutely sealed threaded joint,

in which several; threads are'- ;.'integra,l1

' y a e a a l ie' sio-a eatand therefore which permit of ready removal of the return 1 necessary.

After the flanges have welded, the-- abuttin faces of flanges and pip'les are trued up by grinding or in any sulta le machine, so that they will be fairly parallel when in position.- I then place between them a pair of annularly corrugated copper gaskets 16, erforated to pass the bolts- 17. .These b nuts18. The ends of the bolts, as indicated in Fig. 2, are very' carefully cut off so as to' leave a slight clearance, and in no case to extend outside the face of the nut. The

reason for this is that when all the parts.

- It will beunderstood that the apparatiisf herein described is not limited to use with hydrocarbon vapors, and while I -do not herein claim any other s ecific form of pipe still than that describe my welded jomts may be used with various other forms, as for examplethose in, which some of the joints shown in Figs. 1 and 2 may-be omitted. The number and relative arrangement of the joints are not essential features of the invention except as they are herein specifically claimed and I contemplate all such nonessential changes and modifications as may be fairly includedwithimthe scope of my claims.

Havin I thus described my invention,

what I? c aim and desire to secure'by Letters Patent of the United States is: v I ,1. A jo nt for-high pressure pipe stills or retorts comprising a pair 0 annular flanges or rings threaded? and welded upon ts extend through both flanges l2 and 13, and on their outer ends receive the adjacent pipe ends to-form ahomo neous Y mass with their respective i means for. mechanically an curing said flangles togethen I 2. joint for retorts comprising a pair of rings or annular flanges threaded and welded upon adjacent pipe ends, the outer faces of said flanges and the pipe ends being trued up, a compressible metal gasket interposed between the trued faces ofthe flanges, and bolts passin through the gaskets and securin the 3. joint for pressure 'pipe still en with or retorts comprislng a pair of rings or an-'' anges together. g

a etachably seigh pressurep1pe stills or i nular flanges threaded and welded upon adjacent pipe ends, the outer faces of, said flanges and the pipe ends'being trued up, a compressible metal gasket interposed between the trued faces of the flanges, and

bolts ,securingthe flanges together, said bolts having nuts threaded upon their outer 1o ends, and the bolts and nuts being so proportioned that when the nuts are screwed home to an extent necessary for holding, the ends of the bolts will lie, within the plane of the outer faces-of the nuts without any projection therefromv f 4. A' joint for high pressure fpipe stills -or retorts comprising a pair 0 adjacent pipe ends, theouter faces of said flanges-andthe pipe ends being 'truedup, a 1

rings or. annular flanges threaded and welded upon compressible metal gasket interposed-"between the trued faces of the flanges, and bolts securing the flanges ether,'sa1d bolts having securing devices suc as nuts thread I ed upon their outer ends and the engag ng evlces surfaces of the boltsand securing being plated with a relatively soft and noncorrosive metal such as cop r.

Y my signature In testimony whereof I in presence of two witnesses.

witnesses;

- HARRY C.- SPENCER,

- FRANK E, W LLMAN'. 

